During rehearsal for "Baron's All-American Beauty Pageant," the contestants are shocked to discover the body of Miss Illinois - strangled, but by whom? As Castle and Beckett delve into the cut-throat competition of the pageant world, they learn that a number suspects had motive for murder, including jealous fellow contestants, the pageant's larger-than-life millionaire sponsor, Victor Baron, and the show's host -- hedonistic TV personality, Bobby Stark.

Verne Gay

Robert Bianco

None of the episodes is likely to keep you up at night puzzling out the intricacies of the mystery, but they won't bore you or insult your intelligence. Castle exists to exploit the appeal of its stars and the amusing byplay between their characters, and it does that with admirable efficiency.

Glenn Garvin

Maureen Ryan

Given that the love-hate scenario between Beckett and Castle is fairly predictable, Castle’s success may ride on the quality of its murder mysteries, and it’s encouraging that the show’s second episode is better than the first.

Linda Stasi

Yes, it is all kind of dopey and has that "been there/ done that" feel. But Fillion is so right for the part and carries the show so well that he makes the show more fun than it deserves for an otherwise by-the-book procedural.

Ellen Gray

Alan Sepinwall

Katic has the more thankless role, as the actress in this scenario inevitably does, but the necessary sparks fly when she and Fillion are on screen together swapping barbs, and hopefully as time goes on, she'll get more to do than play kindergarten teacher to Castle. How much you like the series will depend almost entirely on how you enjoy watching these two spar; for me, that was enough.

Emily Nussbaum

The series is primarily goofy formulaic fun, and so far, Katic is no Deschanel, but like its twin, the series uses that shockingly durable Remington Steele DNA--peacock dude, furrowed-brow femme--to build neat puzzles out of human suffering.

Aaron Barnhart

Jonathan Storm

Days after announcing the cancellation of the brilliant "Life on Mars," ABC premieres Castle, dumping an original concept, beautifully achieved, with genius casting, and picking up the most averagely entertaining series in a long time.

Mary McNamara

The problem is that in the pilot and an early episode, the crimes are nowhere as compelling as the characters. For a show like "Castle" that dares to launch a more classic version into an already saturated and tarted-up market, the murders have to be as complicated and compelling as the push-me-pull-you glances between the main characters, and so far, they just aren't.

Heather Havrilesky

Brian Lowry

Sullivan's theatrics notwithstanding, Castle's home environment also proves relatively bland (does primetime really need another precocious teenager?), which means the two episodes previewed pivot largely on the strength of the cases, whose twists certainly don't break new ground (though it is nice to see Keir Dullea in a guest role).